I’ve built a computer for my dad this Christmas—most of the parts came from NewEgg and TigerDirect, and I’m happy with how it turned out so far but he hasn’t had the opportunity to use it much yet.

What I really want to is put together a timeline for replacing my current computer at home that I built in 2003. I’ve always tried to support AMD CPUs (bought my first Intel in a while last year via my MacBook), and I’m under the impression they’re not as much as a value anymore. Building my dad’s computer was a good exercise for understanding what I’d want for my own replacement as well, though.